I'll do it for fifty quid

The auction of almost 80 of the world's best players is well under way in Bombay as I type and astounding sums of money are being bid for the best Twenty20 players. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gone for $1.5 million; Sanath Jayasuriya for $975,000; Sachin Tendulkar for more than a million (on the grounds that as an icon player he will be paid 15 per cent more than Jayasuriya); Andrew Symonds for $1.35 million. Astounding prices given the salary cap of $5 million that each team is allowed to spend. Some pretty big names are going to be disappointed with how little they will be paid. Either that or (am I just being a cynic here?) the IPL will view the salary cap as just a starting point.

Meanwhile, no one loves (or can afford) Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Yousuf, who have gone back into a second pool after failing to meet their reserve price. I suspect I'm not the only one who finds it amusing that Shane Warne, after all his self-publicity, will earn only $450,000, but he'll probably make double that in selling hair.

I tracked down the Welshman who is handling the auction yesterday and you can read his view of how it was due to go by clicking here.

Comments

[Patrick Kidd]

Hi Kap, if you click on the link I put into the above story, that should explain it to you. Any specific questions, ask away...

[Kap]

Anyone care to explain how this IPL bidding lark works? Ta.

[Oscar the Grouch]

Much as me old china Peter Mac considers 20/20 to be to cricket what Kylie M is to Opera, if the teams as we are starting to see them emerge have everybody fire up on the same night there's going to be some amazing exhibition willow-walloping and leather flinging. It may well end up that the success of this series will be measured truly by not which team wins or loses but how the games are played - ironic as that would be in the circumstances.

While the bidding so far isn't totally rational it's noticeable that the high prices are in the main going to players who (usually) fire up straight out of the box.

It won't really be cricket as we know it but it has every chance of being hugely entertaining. We'll just have to suspend our love of Chess and embrace rollerball - a bit - sort of...but just for a one-night stand, OK?